English Language

17 sections available · 78 chapters available

Free English Language study notes for Senior Secondary (HKDSE) students. Each chapter below covers a key topic with worked examples and practice prompts you can take into the thinka app.

Getting along with Others

Study, School Life and Work

Paper 1 Reading — Part A skills

  • Skimming, scanning and locating specific details

  • Main ideas, topic sentences and text organisation

  • Contextual meaning of words and phrases

  • Reference words and cohesive devices

  • Inference, implied meaning and cause and effect

  • Writer's purpose, tone, mood and attitude

  • Summary cloze, table and flow-chart completion

  • Multiple choice, True/False/Not Given and matching

Cultures of the World

Paper 1 Reading — Part B1 and B2 text types

  • News reports and feature articles

  • Blogs, forum posts and social media texts

  • Advertisements, leaflets and notices

  • Letters, emails and letters to the editor

  • Reports, surveys and information graphics

  • Opinion columns and argumentative texts

  • Narrative and literary extracts

  • Cross-referencing and comparing multiple texts

Paper 2 Writing — Part A (guided, about 200 words)

  • Reading the situation, purpose and audience

  • Using given information, headings and openings

  • Leaflets, posters and promotional texts

  • Formal and informal letters and emails

  • Notices, announcements and short messages

  • Short reports and proposals

  • Register, tone and staying within the word count

Wonderful Things

Nature and Environment

Paper 2 Writing — Part B (extended, about 400 words)

  • Argumentative and discursive essays

  • Letters to the editor and opinion pieces

  • Speeches and presentation scripts

  • Short stories and narrative writing

  • Blog posts and personal accounts

  • Reviews of books, films and performances

  • Proposals, formal reports and workplace texts

  • Planning, paragraphing and developing an argument

The Individual and Society

Paper 3 Listening — Part A

  • Listening for specific details, numbers and names

  • Note-taking and form and table completion

  • Following instructions, directions and procedures

  • Speakers' feelings, views, attitudes and intentions

  • Accents, connected speech and moderate-pace delivery

  • Gap-filling, spelling and accurate transcription

  • Monologues, dialogues and multi-speaker exchanges

Communicating

    Paper 3 Integrated Skills — Part B1 and B2 (Data File)

    • Navigating the Data File under time pressure

    • Selecting and combining information from several sources

    • Posters, leaflets and promotional writing

    • Emails, memos and invitations

    • Presentation scripts and speeches

    • Reports, minutes and proposals

    • Appropriacy: register and tone in work and study tasks

    • The extended writing task (100 to 200 words)

    Technology

    Grammar in use

    • Tenses and time reference

    • Conditionals and hypothetical meaning

    • The passive voice and objective writing

    • Modal verbs and degrees of certainty

    • Relative clauses and complex noun phrases

    • Reported speech and paraphrasing

    • Articles, determiners and countability

    • Connectives, cohesion and sentence variety

    Leisure and Entertainment

    Vocabulary and language functions

    • Word formation, affixation and collocation

    • Phrasal verbs, idioms and fixed expressions

    • Register, formality and communicative functions

    • The Internet

    • The Media and Publications

    • Protecting the Environment

    • Occupations, Careers and Prospects

    • The World of Sports

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